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Educational Philosophy Paper

Katie MacDonald

EDUC 204-A

Dr. Emma Cody-Mitchell

Carson-Newman University

April 12, 2018


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My philosophy of education and definition for education was first formed at a young age

as a result of my experiences in school. Even though I moved from school to school quite often I

was a very dedicated and motivated student with no desire to question the nature of my education.

I simply came to school to accept and absorb all of the lessons that I would have for that day. As

devoted as I was, the true main goal that I kept throughout my primary and most of secondary

education was to perform well in my classes and be the top student every semester, every class. It

didn’t matter what the material covered. Whether it was how to factor polynomials or the

memorization of the genus and species of the common flowers of Southern Nevada. All of it

seemed to be pertinent and necessary information that I felt that I would need to know for the rest

of schooling. As for those classmates that gave little to no effort or time to their education, I never

did understand or try to understand their views on education.

Now I that I have grown as a person and have entered the next level of education, college,

I have a more open, questioning mind. This does not mean that my philosophy of education had

changed completely. I still believe that the gist of education is still that it is overwhelmingly

important. What is taught by the teachers and absorbed by the students needs to be used to expand

your bank of knowledge, acquire new and varied capabilities, as well as to integrate facts and

equations to real world experiences and situations. Even though the general philosophy has stayed

the same there are some details that are found within it that have changed due to this new open-

minded approach. I can see now that there are more factors at play than a student's ability to grasp

an abstract concept or study effectively for a test. Instead I can see that motivation, interest,

personalized learning, reflection, growth, and community are the principal elements of education

("Indiana University Bloomington", 2015).


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Every student deep down all genuinely wants to learn and be successful in what is being

taught, but unfortunately not all students can enter the classroom with previous life experiences

that have encouraged their growth in education. Most of the children that come into the classroom

enter with predisposed notions and biases that they learn from home or their peers that can affect

their interest and motivation to learn. Each student has from a different background, therefore each

student carries a different amount of baggage than their fellow classmates. This means that the

interest in the learning can come in varying degrees for every class. A portion of one class may

come ready with their thinking caps and can focus and retain the instruction relatively well.

However, there is still a remainder of the students that have a few things that block their path of

focus and attentiveness. These obstacles range from affective filters, counter-productive

philosophies, or domestic unrest (Ambrose, 2010). These hindrances must be taken care of before

any learning to be able to take place. Sometimes this can be an arduous task and it takes time and

community for trust to begin to be built and for the filters to fall.

Many of the students that enter the classroom with these counterproductive philosophies,

also have the belief that the weight of the education responsibility lies solely on the adults and/or

teachers. They are to produce learning in each and every individual student without any give from

the student they are trying to teach. This idea of entitlement is planted firmly in their minds and is

extremely difficult to uproot like mustard weeds in a beautiful garden of roses. This impression,

however, is the complete opposite of the truth. The true role of the teacher is to equip students for

success not to just hand them all of the answers and give them an A+. The focus of all teaching

should be to equip students to be successful, so later the child can apply the lessons learned in the

classroom to real life problems. But we as teachers can’t just teach any lesson in any way. Teachers

in Tennessee must follow the Tennessee state standards. These standards came about through from
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a committee of representatives and a majority vote and is what tells teachers what exactly they are

employed to accomplish.

How I plan to accomplish these goals that are set for us as Tennessee teachers is guided by

the philosophies of perennialism and essentialism. I believe that there are teaching techniques that

have stood the test of time and since they have these techniques are valuable assets. Conversely,

what has failed time after time should be scraped or modified. It is in the best interest for a teacher

who has used the same instructional strategy year after year and still produces mediocre results to

branch out and try new things. As for strategies that have worked pretty okay in the past should

also be modifies. My ultimate goal as a teacher is to have 100% engagement and 100%

effectiveness in learning. If that goal is not completely met then as the teacher I should test and

adjust any old systems and routines I may have in place to find what would work best with each

individual student. However, I believe that I should still stick to the tried and true building blocks

of education which are reading, writing, and arithmetic. These have been a set a sturdy foundation

for the framework of future classes and lessons and will continue to be that way for generations.

My instructional strategies will most definitely be structured around these core classes to

accommodate the anticipated end goals.

I believe this sturdy base is one of the strengths that I have as a teacher. Along with the

different resources I have available to all of the students for very lesson. All students, as stated

earlier, have different ways of learning. It is tremendously important to have the right supplies for

each type. Such as with a lesson on plant biology I would lecture on the parts of a plant and allow

students to record the lecture so those that are more of an auditory learner can go back and re listen.

For the students that prefer visuals I will have a presentation filled with diagrams and figures while

I talk but I will also put the presentation on a centralized school sanctioned site so that all the
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students that want a copy can go back through and re-look at the power point. After the lecture I

will pass around a model of what we went over that day whether that was the cell of a plant or the

anatomy of a flower. This is for the kinesthetic learners.


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Works Cited

Ambrose, S. A. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart

teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Indiana University Bloomington. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2018, from http://education.indiana

.edu/undergraduate/six-principles.html

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